DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cut off greens near the top of the beets, and wash beets thoroughly. Put beets (with skin on) in roasting pan or baking dish and toss with half the oil. Bake for 45-60 minutes or until a knife can easily slide through the largest beet.

While beets are baking, wash the greens. My trick to thoroughly cleaning any greens is to put them in a colander inside a bowl of water. Fill the bowl with water and shake/toss the greens. Lift the colander and you’ll likely see bits of sand or debris. Pour the water out of the bowl. Repeat as many times as necessary til the bowl of water shows no debris. Place the colander back into the bowl, fill with water again, sprinkle in a generous amount of salt, which will kill any creepy crawlies that may still be hiding on the greens. Let sit for 5-10 minutes. When you’re ready to cook the greens, rinse them once more and dry them. (I lay them on a dish towel and roll up the towel to absorb the water).

When the beets are almost done, heat the remaining olive oil in a skillet. Add the garlic and onion and cook for 1-2 minutes. Tear the greens into 2″-3″ pieces and add to a skillet. My skillet was piled with greens more than 3 times the height of the pan, but you can watch them rapidly shrink. Cook just until wilted.

Put cooked greens in a serving dish and toss with salt and pepper.

You can peel the beets if you like, but they’re tasty with the roasted skin on. Slice the beets and either serve separately with vinegar sprinkled on, or serve on top of the bowl of greens. I added sesame seeds for a little extra crunch on the beets.